Once upon a time, before th' Facebooks and Twitters and Reddits and MySpaces, there were bein' Usenet. And on Usenet, flamin' and trollin' were bein' an art form. And hoist the mainsail, I'll warrant ye! It wasn’t just a bunch o' angry, shockin', monkeys on keyboards, we'll keel-haul ye, pass the grog! Trolls were subtle. Flames were eloquent and surgically precise.

Then in th' early 90s, they opened th' internet up t' th' general public, and it became Amateur Hour. Newcomers, with no knowledge o' th' existin' culture, nor th' patience t' observe and absorb it, saw these writin's and mistook them fer Righteous Anger. And they got it into their heads that th' Way Of The Net were bein' t' spout off whatever idiotic thought that crossed yer mind, because that person will ne'er be able t' get back at me and Free Speech, Murica!

Paul Ford lays out a thoughtful article/interactive experience tryin' t' explain t' th' layperson, “what is code?”. It also delves a little into management o' software development via a fictional (I hope) project. It’s long, but I encourage folks t' set aside some time and go through it, whether or not ye know anythin' about computer programmin'. It’s fun!